Alone, Together
by themergitonian
Summary: After the death of his mother, Ash is left alone with only his Pokemon for company. Or is he? Advanceshipping.
1. Home

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

**Hello! This is going to be an advanceshipping story so if you don't like, review and say so! All your reviews are appreciated, both the good and the bad. I probably won't be updating this very often because I have two other stories I'm writing currently. For me, not very often is probably be around one new chapter a week but I definitely won't be leaving this for months on end. I know that this chapter is pretty short but think of it sort of like a prologue, the other ones will hopefully be longer.**

**Enjoy, R&R!**

- Home -

It had started with a phone call. Ash had been travelling through the Unova region for quite some time now with Cilan and Iris and when the call had came it found them staying in Castelia city at the Pokemon Center there. Cilan had picked up the call on video chat and was greeted by a grim looking Professor Oak.

"Ash, Professor Oak is calling for you." He told Ash and left when Ash walked up to the console.

"Ah, Ash. It's good to see you." Professor Oak said to Ash.

"Is something wrong Professor?" Ash asked curiously, ignoring any 'hello's or 'good to see you's and jumping straight to the point.

"Yes." Professor Oak said, grim faced. "Last night your mother suffered a serious heart attack. She's in the hospital now and I've been to speak with her. I-" Ash cut him off.

"I'll be on the next boat home Professor!" He said.

"Ash, listen. Your mother wants you to keep going with your journey, she's really doing fine and is expected to make a full recovery. The doctor said she'll be out of there in a week."

"No, I'm coming now and that final." Ash said stubbornly. "Besides, the Ventress Conference is already over, I was planning on heading back soon anyway." He added justifying his actions to Professor Oak.

"Ok then Ash, I'm sure your mother will be very happy to see you." He said giving up.

"Bye Professor."

"See you soon Ash."

The screen went black and Ash turned back to his friends. They both noticed the absence of his usually cheerful demeanor.

"Guys, I've got to go back to Kanto earlier than I thought, my mom's had a heart attack and I need to go make sure she's okay." He said, worried about his friends reactions.

"We understand Ash. You can come and visit me and Iris anytime you like." Cilan said and Iris nodded in agreement.

"Axew!" Axes said from inside Iris' hair.

"Thanks guys." Ash said, a faint smile returning to his face. He thought about how he had such good friends. "You can come visit Pallet town whenever as well."

"Pika! Pikachu!" Pikachu said as he leapt onto his trainer's shoulder.

"Yeah Pikachu, let's go get tickets. Unfezant can fly us to the harbour tomorrow."

Ash ran out of the Pokemon Center leaving his friends to think about what they would do without Ash.

- Line Break -

Ash had gotten back to Pallet town the day after Professor Oak had called. Unfezant had flown him from the harbour straight to the hospital so he could see how his mom was doing and was resting in her Pokeball has Ash ran into the hospital and walked up to the front desk.

"Hi, I'm here to see Delia Ketchum." He said to the attendant. The attendant looked down at her computer monitor and type some stuff in.

"Sir, there is no Delia Ketchum here." She said.

"No, she's should be here. She would have come in two days ago to be treated for a heart attack." Ash insisted. The attendant pressed a few buttons as Ash waited. After a minute or so she looked up at Ash, hating her job.

"Sir, Delia Ketchum had a relapse and stopped responding to treatment 10 hours ago. She's dead." The attendant told him. She could sympathise with this boy, her own mother had died when she had been even younger.

Ash just stood there, no moving at all. Then Pikachu gave him a little shock, startling him into moving again. "Thank you." he said calmly and he walked out of the hospital. As he walked back to his house, now in his sole care. It started raining, soaking him to the bone but Ash didn't notice at all, the attendant's words still echoing in his head. 'She's dead'.

Ash stepped inside his house and shut the door. Pikachu nuzzling himself under his trainer's arm trying to comfort him. Ash just stared ahead with shock and mouthed the words the attendant had spoke to him.

"She's dead."

- Close -

**Thanks for reading! Please review, it takes only a minute of your time but it is forever gratifying when you do. I'll not be updating this if no one reviews so if you want more written then say so.**


	2. Friends

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

**Hello! Here's another chapter so...**

**Enjoy, R&R!**

- Friends -

She heard it from Max, who heard it from Brock, who heard it from Professor Oak, who Ash had visited the day after with the news. Ash's mom was dead. May knew about Delia, Ash had talked about her quite frequently and May had seen her a few times when they were travelling. She'd couldn't begin to imagine what Ash was going through. She knew that Ash was disappointed in his father for leaving him when he was very young and now to have his mother taken away from him? She'd always lived with her parents. They'd been there for her whenever she needed them to be, she even had a brother too but Ash? Who did Ash have?

Then it struck her, she was what Ash had. He had all the friends he had made on his journey. She'd go to Kanto to see Ash. That's what friends did, right? May had always hoped that her relationship with Ash was something more than friendship. It had started out as just a girly crush but her feeling had deepened over the course of their travels. Ash was always so happy and nice, there wasn't any part of him that was even remotely unfriendly. She thought about how compassionate he was towards other people and Pokemon. He just cared for everyone so much. He was the glue that held the people he met together when they travelled with him.

When she had known Ash, he'd never showed any weakness. He'd stubbornly fight against the odds and come out on top. He was always there for her to lean on when times got tough, he was like family to her and it hurt her to know he was hurting.

She didn't delay in telling her family where she was going and madly dashing off to catch a boat to Pallet town. With her she brought Blaziken, Beautifly, Venasaur, Blastoise, Glaceon and Kirlia. Pokemon aside, all she had was money to buy boat tickets. Blastoise could swim them across but it wouldn't be as fast and it would tire him out a lot.

It took May 3 hours of hiking and the use of Kirlia's teleport multiple times to reach the harbour where May quickly bought tickets and boarded the boat that was set to leave in half an hour.

While she waited she thought to herself about what she should say when she arrived at her friend's door, a friend she hadn't seen in person for 3 years and whose mother had just died. She was thoroughly and utterly stumped. She thought about it for the entire boat ride, a total of 4 hours, and had almost missed the blaring announcement telling everyone to get off. Someone had actually come up to her and shook her until she realized what was going on and got off the boat.

She stepped off the boat and walked over to the Pokemon center that was close by. It was already dark and so she decided to stay at the harbour town and make her way inland the next day.

She checked into a hotel and then video called her family back in Hoenn from the hotel lobby. A picture of Max showed up on the screen.

"Hey May, how're you doing? Are you in Pallet town?" He asked her.

"Oh hey Max, I'm staying at a hotel in the harbour by where the boat dropped me off, it's already dark so I didn't want to walk to Pallet town and get lost." She answered. "Why are you back at home? Aren't you on your journey right now?"

"Yeah, but I came back for a visit. When I told you what happened, I didn't expect you to leave that day." He said jokingly. She actually hadn't seen her younger sibling for several months and seeing his face on the screen reminded her of Ash when she first met him.

"Well, you know me." She said. "Sorry, but I should go to bed now, tell our parent's I'm okay for me."

"Will do May. Bye." He said.

"Bye."

The screen went black and May made her way back to the hotel room for the night, thoughts of seeing Ash dominant in her mind as she drifted off into sleep. She spoke out loud a promise both to her and to her friend.

"I'll be there for you Ash."

- Line Break -

Ash woke up on his couch and wondered how he got there. The last thing he remembered was getting a call from Professor Oak telling him- The call!

Everything that happened the day before came rushing back and Ash collapsed partway to the kitchen, falling to his knees like a ton of bricks had been dropped on him. His mother was dead. Dead, as in not living. He thought about the last time he talked to her, it had been almost a month ago. A month ago he never could have imagined the past day happening like it did. He never would have thought that what he said would be the last thing his mother would ever hear him say.

Ash suddenly felt very alone. He had been through a lot in his life though the people who met him never knew because he never asked like it. He had held up the semblance of a normal life like a deck of cards, ready to topple at any moment yet still remaining standing. His mother had been one of the cards the lie was build upon. With a mom, he could say he had parent or at least, one parent, and somehow it made everything a little better. He had always been cheerful and tried his hardest not to let any other emotions show but without his mother, without the essential piece of his well fabricated lie to himself the emotions suppressed over 17 years of his life broke through and all he wanted to do was curl up into a ball and cry.

He couldn't though, people had to be told. Wait... he already told Professor Oak. That would have to be enough.

All the noise he was making must have woken Pikachu because the yellow mouse had found its way to him and had curled up into a ball in his arms. Ash carried his companion to the kitchen. It reminded Ash so much of his mother, he had always associated this house with his mother and being in the kitchen she had cooked in so many times before physically hurt. He quickly got the Pokemon food out of the cupboard and took it outside where he sent out all of his Pokemon so they could eat.

"Pika pika! Pi pikachu chu pika!" He heard Pikachu say, probably explaining what happened to the other Pokemon. He dutifully measured out the right amount of Pokemon food for each of his Pokemon and then went inside, too tired to care what they did.

Ash then got food for himself and ate in his room, the place that reminded him least of her. He pretty much spent the whole day in his room, going outside once more to feed the Pokemon again before retreating back to his isolation.

His eyes were puffy and red by the end of the day. Ash felt that a day was enough to get over the death of his mother, then he'd get back to training with his Pokemon. He had been thinking about settling down somewhere, coming to terms with the fact that he wasn't the young boy he set out as but he tried to avoid the matter because every time he thought of it the voice in his head told him. "You aren't a Pokemon Master yet either."

He told Pikachu and the other Pokemon to go to Professor Oak's lab to stay instead of staying with him and he gave them their Pokeball, something that most trainers would never do because a Pokemon could just run off if they wanted to.

Ash slept in his own room that night, in his pajamas. An improvement from the night before or it would be if not for the debilitating pain cause by the loss of the only family he had left. All Ash thought about that night was one word that he said to himself repeatedly finding some twisted form of comfort in hearing it.

"Alone."

- Close -

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